There has been a lot of activity around here lately. We’ve gotten swept up in the energy of summer and have been busy as bees.
On Saturday, we picked peaches at a local farm and got a great deal on “seconds” that had some bruises on them. They were ripe and juicy! We also got some “seconds” apples. We were grateful for the seconds because they made putting food away for the winter so much more affordable. And they sure didn’t seem like seconds to me.
On Sunday, we set up our canning pot outside with a propane burner and got to work canning peaches. Right next to our garden sink. (Remember that?)
We could fit 9 jars in it at one time. During the first batch, one jar broke, which reminded us that we need to use all our old jars for storing dried goods and not for canning. We did three batches and ended up canning 26 jars of peaches!
My, how beautiful those golden jars looked as we carried them into the pantry and started filling up the shelves with them!
Then my dad showed up for a visit. We hiked up the mountain and did some blackberry picking. We came back down through the woods during twilight, one of our favorite times to be outdoors, so magical and aglow. We cleaned up our canning project, which had made a very sticky mess (well worth it of course!)
Monday morning we went blueberry picking. Bracken loves blueberries, just like his Grandpa Bob.
Then my dad headed home and we got to work making applesauce.
Jeff got inspired and decided to make some different flavored applesauce. He made blackberry applesauce and blueberry peach applesauce. I loved the different colored jars.
We had two jars break (darn.) We ended up with 16 quarts of applesauce! We felt very good about filling up those pantry shelves!
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We love preserving foods. There’s just some kind of energy that takes over us this time of year and inspires us to keep putting food away for the winter. We love to preserve using a variety of methods- drying, canning, freezing, and fermenting.
We love fermenting for sauerkraut and pickles. Those we keep in the fridge because we want them raw, with all those probiotics! We love drying fruit for trail mixes and vegetables for soups. We love freezing berries. Freezing is so easy, although it makes us nervous when the power goes out! We love canning things like peaches and applesauce.
Fermenting is our favorite because it preserves the most nutrients and life force. Drying our second favorite. Canning and freezing don’t preserve as many nutrients, but they have a place here as well. The variety suits us. And when we make things like applesauce, we are already heating it up anyway, so why not can it?
We love fermenting for sauerkraut and pickles. Those we keep in the fridge because we want them raw, with all those probiotics! We love drying fruit for trail mixes and vegetables for soups. We love freezing berries. Freezing is so easy, although it makes us nervous when the power goes out! We love canning things like peaches and applesauce.
Fermenting is our favorite because it preserves the most nutrients and life force. Drying our second favorite. Canning and freezing don’t preserve as many nutrients, but they have a place here as well. The variety suits us. And when we make things like applesauce, we are already heating it up anyway, so why not can it?
We want to build a root cellar someday. We’re inspired by the book “How to preserve foods without freezing or canning.” For fermenting inspiration, we love “Wild Fermentation” by Sandor Elix-Katz and “Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon. So much to learn! So many recipes to experiment with!
Yes, summer is that busy bee time.
Today, we are taking a deep breath and slowing our pace down a little, which feels good.
I want to hear about your kitchens, gardens and pantries…..
What are your favorite ways for preserving food?
Taryn………Your peaches are beautiful. I love to can tomatoes also.
My canner looked like the one you used.
One of my very favorite things to can was meat. No need to freeze it.
Those chunks of meat in jars would be a great start for a big pot of stew bubbling on the old wood stove.
Bear meat is pink in the jars and a great sandwich meat.
How I would love to do that again.
Love to you three from Aunt Isla.
LOVE this post! I love your peach pictures! So beautiful. You’re so lucky to have farms close by.
This year our neighborhood didn’t get any fruit (late frost), so grapes are the only thing I’m collecting around here. Usually I love getting fallen apples & peaches to freeze and can! But I’ve been making lots of raw pickles for my Hubby, so our fridge is filling up with those…
Funny, just MINUTES before I read this post, I was in the kitchen thinking “I feel like a squirrel all of a sudden”!! With all the cooking and preserving going on. The weather has really turned cooler. I’m hearing blue jays now (sound of fall!), and the sunlight suddenly has that Autumnal quality to it.
Right now on my stove there’s grape juice/pulp (don’t know what you call it) cooking down at a low temperature, and applesauce cooking also. I’m going to start on kale chips in a minute. Those are such a great way to preserve kale; I’m loving them.
And then I’m going to dry some zucchini and make zucchini cookies too.
So busy!!
🙂
Much love to you,
Lindsey
I have been busy canning and preserving too this last few weeks. I made my first batch of kraut with cabbage from my garden. Thank you for the inspiration. I also made pesto. I froze the pesto in ice cube trays for a serving sizes and then popped them out and put them in a freezer baggie. I canned pickles too another first for me. I have had a great time canning and spending time in the kitchen. I love to see all of the work the two of you have done too. Thank you for sharing.
Amber
thetuckerfamilyrules.blogspot.com
Beautiful canned peaches! We’ve had lots of that going on here. One of these years I’m going to have to explore drying and fermenting.
Those broken jars hurt…I think sometimes it just happens – we use nearly only used jars but we’ve had breakages in both.